A couple of posts ago, I was a bit down on 1984. Before it had even started, I was pooh-poohing the idea that it was all that great of a year. But… with this next chart-topper following on from the assault to all five senses that is ‘Relax’, maybe 1984 wasn’t such a bad year after all.
99 Red Balloons, by Nena (their 1st and only #1)
3 weeks, from 26th February – 18th March 1984
Not that I’m going to start claiming it as the best year ever – not yet anyway – but this is another great slice of synth-pop. The slow-building intro is quite similar to ‘Relax’, and it forms the background to a story of two people in a toy shop, buying a bag of red balloons… Set them free at the break of dawn, ‘Til one by one, They were gone…
And then the beat drops – one of the great beat ‘drops’, from before beat ‘drops’ were a thing – and we have an incredibly catchy, cheese-funk synth riff. And guitars! Punk rock guitars. Forget synth-pop; it’s synth-rock. It feels like an age since we’ve had actual guitars at #1, and they drive the song along through its story of nuclear armageddon. Ninety-nine red balloons, Floating in the summer sky…
The authorities see these innocent balloons and panic. This is what we’ve waited for, This is it boys, This is war… You don’t need a degree in 20th Century history to work out what concerns this record is tapping into. The Cold War was at its height: it’s still February, and this isn’t even the first chart-topper of the year to reference war. It won’t be the last either… Incidentally, the inspiration for the song was said to have come when the band went to a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin, and watched balloons released on stage floating towards the Wall.
Nena were themselves from West Germany – ‘Nena’ being both the name of the band and of the lead singer, in a shades of Blondie. In fact, Britain was one of the few countries where the hit version of ’99 Red Balloons’ was in English. Across Europe and Australia, even in the US, the German original soared to the upper reaches of the charts. I do like Nena’s German-accented English, especially in the worry, worry, super scurry line, though there’s a forcefulness to the German version that probably comes from her being more confident singing in her native tongue (the drums are also heavier in the original, which is another pro).
In the end we’re left with something stark, both musically and lyrically. The driving beat and catchy riff vanish, leaving the echoey synths. It’s all over and I’m standing pretty, In this dust that was a city… The singer finds one last balloon. I think of you and let it go… It’s a powerful ending from a song that sometimes gets written off as a novelty (I was thinking the same before listening to it properly a few days ago…)
Nena (the band) had a few more years of success in Germany, but struggled to score many more hits in English-speaking countries. They split up in 1987, though Nena (the singer) has continued to record, and sometimes collaborates with her former bandmates. And so. I am left to reassess my opinions on 1984, and on synth pop in general. Except, oh dear…. Our next number one will go some way to proving why this year wasn’t so great after all…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I loved this song…one of the few bright spots at that time for me. Plus…who wouldn’t like Nena the singer? Her English made her adorable…she looked a little awkward in this video…but was like a girl in high school you could talk to. It had everything I don’t like…heavy synth and fake drums…at least they sound fake but I liked it anyway.
I love the surf/punk guitars too… Did the English version get airplay in the US? I read that the German original was the hit
We got a mixture of both…truly a mixture. The phrase that got my attention was the way she said Captain Kirk. I do remember hearing both in my area…of course who knows what New York or somewhere else was playing.
Is it just me or does she look awkward dancing in the video?….maybe it’s just me.
She does look like she’s not sure what she should be doing… I think this was only their second ever hit, so maybe they were all still new to being rock stars…?
Yea maybe that was it! Or she just didn’t have rhythm lol….
Germans famously don’t…😄
LOL…
Seriously?
Depending upon where you were, you would get more of one over the other. I’m on the US East Coast in North Carolina and our area got more English version than German…video & radio. The German version didn’t hit our area until months later.
Interesting that on the US chart it was listed as ’99 Luftballons’ but it was listed in English in the UK… Nowadays both versions would be combined for chart purposes, probably.
I was born in Germany and was growing up there when the original German version came out. Nena were part of what in Germany was known as “Neue deutsche Welle” (new German wave). Suddenly, bands and other music artists singing new wave and synth pop in German were everywhere. Nena became one of the most successful acts during that period.
I liked some of the “Neue deutsche Welle” music at the time. Now, I generally feel it doesn’t really hold up very well. Anyway, when I heard “99 Luftballons” for the first time in English, I thought it sounded really odd. I realize my reaction may have been different, had I first heard the English version.
Thanks for the background info! I think the German original sounds a little more forceful and confident, probably because she was singing in her first language.
I loved German synth. Peter Schilling’s Major Tom comes to mind (both songs graciously covered in Atomic Blond). It’s my understanding that the German lyrics to 99 Luftballons were completely different to the American lyrics. Is this true?
Then, there was my love for the Scorpions…
I also liked Falco’s work, though I know he is/was Austrian.
I totally echo Max’s thoughts in his initial post above. And your point about Nena’s accent and look. This is a ‘classic.’ Most songs take me back to a time and a place, this to my office (and the upstairs ‘ledgers’ area of the bank in Stirling where I worked. We were allowed to have the radio on there as we were not customer facing, and this must have been played on just about every radio show we listened to. 🙂
Thanks for commenting! It’s great when a song can take you back to a certain time…
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A great track this, very 1984, and German rock/synth was very much in vogue at this time (check out Peter Schilling’s homage to Bowie’s Major Tom, among many great ones). Sadly, Nena became more famous for her unshaven armpits in the uk than for any follow-ups, but 99 Red Balloons remains pretty well regarded – even if my own preference was Rockwell’s Michael-Jackson-assisted Somebody’s Watching Me while it reigned on top.
I agree with your anticipated opinion on the next one. Am I not a fan? Errrr, Hell-o!
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